The Evil Yule Cat, Sears Wishbooks of Yore, Winter Timelapses, etc.
In which I wish you a Merry Christmas and wait on the "Happy New Year!"
🎁 1, 2, 1, 2, 3! “I don’t care what your mama says, Christmas time is near…”
❄️ Snow and ice seize barren landscapes in these entrancing timelapse videos filmed across five winters.
🐱 When in Iceland, beware The Yule Cat. “Charles Dickens’ miserly Ebenezer Scrooge looks downright friendly when compared to Iceland’s meanest Christmas tale: Jólakötturinn, or the child-eating Yule Cat.”
📕 Fond, funny memory of the Sears Wishbook catalog.
🚗 For any Michigander that missed the news this week, the state is bringing back the ‘60s green and white license plates.
🍸 This Prohibition-era map is a love letter to alcohol. “See dozens of 1920s cocktails from a time when alcohol was illegal in the U.S.”
❓ Something I found myself Googling: potentially how much money could a Jeopardy! contestant win in a single day? James Holzhauer never came close to potential daily earnings, but on the top ten list of most money won in a single game, he holds all ten spots, peaking at $131,127 on April 17, 2019.
✍️ Curt Bloch hid from the Nazis for two years during WWII. From a crawlspace of a Dutch home, he produced over 95 magazines that are now drawing attention. “Each issue included original art, poetry and songs that often took aim at the Nazis and their Dutch collaborators. Bloch, writing in both German and Dutch, mocked Nazi propaganda, responded to war news and offered personal perspectives on wartime deprivations.”
🎅 There is a school where Santa Claus learns how to answer heartbreaking requests. “Here's the deal. The human soul doesn't want to be advised or fixed or saved. It simply wants to be witnessed — to be seen, heard and companioned exactly as it is. When we make that kind of deep bow to the soul of a suffering person, our respect reinforces the soul's healing resources, the only resources that can help the sufferer make it through.”
🙏 “If God came down on Christmas Day, I know exactly what He'd say. He'd say ‘Oi to the punks and Oi to the skins and Oi to the world and everybody wins!’”
Merry Christmas! Remember to keep the Hoping Machine running.
Love,
Luke
